In developing an IC package, electrical signals such as AC noise, DC drops, etc. need to be measured across multiple probing points under the IC package. Generally, most of these measurements may require an individual soldering of wires and a mechanical support to hold or stabilize a probe for the measurement. However, the soldering may be time-consuming and may increase a risk of short-circuit in the IC package under test.
Given that the measurements of the electrical signals across the probing points under the IC package may be performed while a measurement setup is running, a mechanical opening for accessing the probing points may be limited in size since a large opening may affect electrical properties of the environment and allow potential electromagnetic interferences (EMI) from external sources hence to alter the measurements themselves. Therefore, it is challenging to reach a correct probe point due to lack of a clear view of a probe point of interest.
In addition, an “Ardent Concepts” has been developed to provide a multi-port probing solution for accessing a featureless structure such as a back side of a pin array with no electrical components. However, the existing Ardent solution does not properly address issues of probing specific type of electrical components, such as surface-mounted technology (SMT)-based components (hereinafter, referred to as SMT components). Also, the Ardent solution is customizable from a supplier, and thus cannot be adapted to a variety of probing environments. The Ardent solution employs a base plate and probes. Since the probes in the Ardent solution shares a common reference (or ground) structure within the base plate, independent deployments of the probes would be limited.